


Little Ghost

by Schrodingers_Rufus



Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-11 07:05:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10458303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schrodingers_Rufus/pseuds/Schrodingers_Rufus
Summary: Amateur paranormal investigator Jay drags fellow film student Alex to the annex of a burned-out hospital a few hours away from their school, seeking evidence of the supernatural.They find it.





	

"Did you hear that?" Jay nudged at Alex with the flashlight, sending a beam of light skittering across the walls.

"Hear _what_?" Tearing the camera’s view away from the door, Jay trained it on Alex. Through the green haze of the night vision setting, he could see that Alex’s arms were folded tightly across his chest, the microcasette recorder still gripped in one hand. "Another raccoon? Maybe a possum this time? When you said we’d be seeing ‘paranormal phenomena’, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind."

"This stuff takes time, alright?" Alex wasn’t getting it-- _why wasn’t Alex getting it?_ "If it was easy, it wouldn’t be called ‘paranormal’. It’d just be...y’know. Normal."

Alex rolled his eyes. "We’ve already used up ten bucks’ worth of tapes. That’s, like...at least four good coffees back on campus."

Jay snorted. "Yeah, alright. And how many coffees has your little art film used up so far?"

Alex visibly stiffened, eyes glowing green in the viewfinder. "That’s different."

"I saw at least two grocery bags’ worth in the trunk."

"That’s _different,_ " Alex snapped. "If people would just get things right on the first take--"

A loud crash mercifully interrupted whatever Alex was planning to say.

With a jerk of his wrist, Jay whipped his camera back around to face the door. "You heard _that_ , right?"

"I heard the building falling apart, so maybe we should--Jay! _Jay!_ "

Jay was already off like a shot, navigating more by the green-tinted images in the viewfinder than by the flashlight. He tried to keep his footsteps soft, listening for any more sign of activity, but speed took precedence. He could hear Alex shouting after him in the distance. He ignored it.

Jay’s foot caught something and he slipped sideways, curling around the camera to protect it from the fall. He hit the ground hard, and he could feel something cold and solid digging into his back. Groaning softly, he lifted himself to sit upright, tilting the camera to see what he’d hit. Just a piece of old rebar. He set the flashlight down and rubbed at his back. Thank god he was wearing layers; if that thing hit skin, he might’ve needed a tetanus shot.

Jay scanned the ground; whatever he’d slipped on, it hadn’t felt like metal. Something pale white caught his eye, and he zoomed in closer. It looked like a shell, or some kind of malformed bowl, or--? With some effort, he pulled himself to his feet, the slanted line across his lower back throbbing painfully. _Definitely going to leave a bruise_. Zooming the camera back out, he reached for the pale shape on the floor.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Alex’s snarling voice cut through the silence, and Jay nearly lost his balance again. "The building’s falling apart, and your first thought is to run inside?"

Jay heard the words but couldn’t focus on their meaning, too busy turning the piece of flimsy, cracked plastic over in his hands. "Hey--hey, Alex, look at this."

"Look at _what_?"

"This!"

With a dismissive snort, Alex stepped away--"Wait--wait!" "Just a second, calm down"--and picked Jay’s forgotten flashlight off the floor.

"Alright, what is it?"

Jay held it under the beam of the flashlight. "I think it’s a--a mask."

"Great." Jay barely caught Alex’s eyeroll in the dim light of the flashlight. "Probably left over from some Halloween party. I think I heard some guys in my hall talking about--"

"Yeah, sure, but look." Jay insisted, holding the mask out. "It’s tiny. Like, like for a kid."

"And?"

" _And?_ " Jay gripped the camera tighter. "Pediatric mental ward?"

"You’re saying this mask belongs to...a ghost."

"Not exactly, but yeah, fine, let’s go with that." Jay paced. "No, never mind, let’s not. Look, what I’m saying is: what if this mask belonged to one of the kids? You know, _before_ this place burned down?"

"And it’s still here," Alex said flatly.

"And it’s still here."

"And it’s not melted from, y’know, the fire."

"It’s just a guess, alright?" Jay snapped. He rubbed a thumb against the edge of the mask as he paced, only stopping when he started to see chips in the paint.

Alex stood up straighter, eyes wide.

" _What?_ " Jay snapped.

"Shh--shh." Alex sounded almost _worried_ , which was enough to set Jay’s senses on high alert. "Listen."

There was silence, crickets chirping, and then...a quiet, hiccuping sob.

"Are you getting this?" Jay whispered, keeping a white-knuckled grip on the camera.

Alex fumbled with the recorder. "I am now."

"You _turned it off?_ " Jay scolded, his voice a hoarse whisper.

"I was trying to save space on the tapes, now _shut up._ "

They listened. The crying continued--quiet and muffled, like the person had a hand over their mouth.

Jay inched forward, camera held out in front.

"If we die tonight, I’ll kill you," Alex drawled.

Jay turned back to look at him, squinting against the flashlight beam, and put a finger to his lips.

As they crept further into the old pediatric wing, shoes scuffling against old leaves and debris, the crying grew louder, occasionally collapsing into high, wheezing coughs.

Jay’s breath caught in his throat. He turned back to Alex, trying to still the quiver in his hand as he pointed to the next door on their left. " _It’s in there,_ " he mouthed silently.

Alex’s brow furrowed. " _You’re sure?"_ he mouthed back.

Jay nodded. " _You’re still rolling?"_

 _"What?"_ Alex gestured to his ear for emphasis.

 _Dammit, Alex_. Jay mimed a small box, the size of a recorder, and spun his finger to indicate a moving tape.

Alex nodded like it was obvious. Then, he pointed at Jay. " _Are you?"_

 _"Yes!"_ Jay mouthed emphatically.

The sobs started up again, louder this time, less restrained.

Jay chewed at his lip. He’d been waiting for a moment like this since high school, since his first investigation, and yet, he couldn’t--

 _"Just go!"_ Alex pointed furiously at the door.

_"Fine!"_

Jay gripped the camera, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

At first, it looked like any other room in the building--peeling paint, broken ceiling tiles, piles of debris--but then, in the moonlight shining through the cracked window, he saw it: a small boy, no older than twelve or thirteen, curled up tight in the corner of the room. He held a worn blanket tightly around his shoulders, obscuring nearly everything but a shock of disheveled black hair.

Jay checked the viewfinder and found the image warped, distorted.

"Holy shit," he whispered.

At that, the boy sat up straighter, staring up at Jay with a look of unrestrained panic. His eyes reflected like an animal caught in the headlights.

Alex stepped inside the room then, flashlight in hand, and the boy pressed himself further into the corner, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself. Jay held out a hand to Alex, motioning that he shouldn’t get any closer. The boy looked between the two, visibly shaking.

"Is that--?" Alex started.

" _Shh._ " Jay didn’t have time to answer questions. He turned to the boy, trying to school his voice into something quiet and nonthreatening. "Hey."

He didn’t respond, but he kept his gaze fixed on Jay. Good, so he could hear them. "Don’t worry, we’re not going to...try to hurt you or anything. What’s your name?"

He whispered something too quiet for Jay to hear.

"What’s that?"

"Tim...othy." The words sounded off, like they were being played on an old record player. "Timothy Wright."

"Do you usually go by Tim?"

The boy nodded slowly, carefully, like he was afraid it would offend someone.

A thought struck Jay. "Is this…" He held out the mask. "Is this yours?"

Tim jolted at the sight, dropping the blanket as he stood up. He turned away, pressing against the wall and digging into the peeling paint with his fingernails. "No, no, _no no no no no!"_ His voice climbed higher, more hysterical.

Jay heard a quiet, sarcastic, "Great," behind him, and he shot Alex a glare.

He turned back to Tim, hands out, placating. "Hey, it’s okay." Jay knew he didn’t sound convincing. "It’s okay, we’re not gonna hurt you."

The boy shifted so his back was to the wall, his eyes locked onto Jay’s. Jay resisted the urge to look away. "You have to get out of here," Tim said, voice quivering. "It’s not safe _\--you have to get out!"_ His voice cracked painfully on the last word.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Alex asked, sounding a lot more composed than Jay felt. "What’s not safe?"

"Let me out, let me out..." Tim muttered, running his hands along the walls. " _It’s not safe, let me out..._ "

Jay kneaded his forehead with a free hand, feeling a tension headache starting to build. "Hey--hey, _Tim_." Jay snapped his fingers, and Tim finally looked up at him, tear tracks staining his unnaturally pale skin. "What’s not safe?"   

"Here! This room, the woods, I don’t know..." He started to pace. "It’s everywhere, I don’t know, but it lives in the woods, it says I have to go to the woods, and I don’t _want to._ "

"What’s ‘it’?" Alex asked, squinting strangely.

" _I don’t know!"_ Tim wailed, sliding down the wall to hug his knees. "I used to know, I think, but I keep forgetting. It keeps _making me forget_."

"Is it…" Jay tried to word it delicately. "...Real?"

"Jay!" Alex snapped behind him.

"What?" Jay whispered back. "It’s a psych ward."

"You can’t just--"

Tim laughed quietly, his voice still tight with tears. "I see stuff that’s not real. But this...is real. It’s definitely real. I’ve seen--dead animals outside my window, and I think it--"

"Is it an animal?" Jay cut him off. The tension in his neck was shortening his patience. "Like a coyote or a--?"

Tim sat up straight, eyes wide. "It’s a man."

Something in Jay’s head unraveled, and he fell to his knees, hands scratching at his throat because he’s _drowning, he’s drowning, he can’t breathe--!_ He coughed, but nothing changed; it was still in his lungs, weighing him down. He felt pressure against his shoulder--the camera, _where’s the camera_ \--and he grabbed for it, clutching it to his chest. He could hear someone screaming (Alex? Was that his voice?) and the walls were moving like they were alive, like they were _breathing_ , and someone grabbed his shoulder, someone was yelling at him to _run_ , and he was running, clumsy and slow, latched onto something warm and moving and pulling him towards the woods. A small voice was crying, begging them _not to leave him alone_ , but he was too far away to go back, he was getting farther, there were wet branches in his face and leaves sliding under his shoes, and _they were at the car_ , and Alex was behind the wheel, turning the key in the ignition, and Jay was sitting lopsided in the passenger’s seat, knees pulled up to his chest and the camera still gripped tightly in his hand.

They were back in the dorm parking lot before either of them spoke.

"So," Alex said, hands still tightly wound around the wheel. "This is what you do for fun, huh?"

Jay tried to laugh, but it came out more like a sob.

Alex cleared his throat quietly. "Yeah, same."


End file.
